Planned Parenthood hit with $5.5 billion fraud suit

One of Planned Parenthood’s former clinic managers has turned whistle blower, claiming that the abortion provider’s Heartland branch has scammed American taxpayers by filing nearly 500,000 fraudulent Medicaid claims over 10 years, netting the organization an illicit $28 million.

Sue Thayer, former manager of Iowa’s Storm Lake and LeMars Planned Parenthood clinics, has sued the organization under both federal and Iowa False Claims Acts, alleging that Planned Parenthood knowingly committed Medicaid fraud from 2002 to 2009 by seeking improper and even illegal reimbursements from Iowa Medicaid Enterprise and the Iowa Family Planning Network.

According to the lawsuit, originally filed in March of last year but made public just this week, Planned Parenthood submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursements” to Medicaid.